


maybe I just gotta wait maybe this is a mistake I'm a fool yeah

by webbythyme



Series: soulmate arrowverse [2]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Alternative Universe - No Island, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-08
Updated: 2020-05-08
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:48:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24066106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/webbythyme/pseuds/webbythyme
Summary: What happens when you find your soulmate and they are the most popular boy in school? What do you do when you start to like him? What do you do when he forgets to catch you when you fall? Laurel has all but accepted that having a soulmate didn't mean you got to be in love. No, she is pretty sure you just get to fall apart.
Relationships: Laurel Lance/Tommy Merlyn, Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak
Series: soulmate arrowverse [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1735513
Comments: 1
Kudos: 22





	maybe I just gotta wait maybe this is a mistake I'm a fool yeah

_maybe I just gotta wait maybe this is a mistake I'm a fool yeah_

Tommy walked down the halls and unbuttoned his plaid shirt in the process to see the damage from art class. Such a stupid class, but he kinda needed an elective and was told art was the easiest thing.

But of course he got stuck with Roy, and though they are good friends, they tend to not do well in class together--like at all.

Hence why Tommy is glaring at his open button up and his chest now covered in bright purple paint.

He is so busy staring at his now purple chest, he doesn’t even notice someone walking out a door until he is running right into them.

“Shit,” He goes to steady them before he even realizes his arms are around a petite girl.

“Sorry, didn’t see you there,” She pulls herself out of his arms and Tommy can’t help but want to laugh at the clumsy way to steady herself.

He had seen her around, kinda hard in this school to miss a girl with such a sour face at everyone who looks her way. He knows they must have gone to the same school since middle, most likely even have had a class together, but he had no idea what her name was.

She isn’t looking at him, or responding to him because she is openly staring at his open shirt, his chest and he feels smug. What can he say? He’s a looker.

“Excuse me, my eyes are up here,” He teases but she isn’t looking away and she looks almost sick, paling the longer she looks at him.

He looks down and then he sees it, ever so small to the right of his sternum was a mark. Half of the yin yang symbol, the black part. That definitely wasn’t there before.

His eyes slowly look at her arms and on her left forearm is a white symbol.

_Oh fuck._

“Shit,” She finally says, and takes another step away from him and he finally looks at her. Her overalls, her unkempt hair, her glare. Yin yang--well that isn’t subtle.

“Uhh--well hey soulmate.” Is all he says cause what the fuck are you supposed to say to your soulmate?

“No,”

Apparently that.

She starts to walk away from him, rather fast or fast as she can with someone who shuffles their feet and since she is his fucking soulmate, he follows her--right into the girl’s bathroom.

“Of course you follow me. Why wouldn’t you? You’re Tommy Merlyn.” She’s bordering hysterical and honestly he is a little offended. He isn’t _that_ bad.

“I take offense to that,” He tells her and she glares at him. 

They are standing feet apart, not taking any chances of coming closer and strengthening the bond.

“It doesn’t mean anything.”

“Look--” And then he stops, because what is he gonna say? It should mean something? He doesn’t even know her name.

“I am not talking to you about this when you don’t even know my name,” She snaps.

And then she leaves, her long hair giving off a floral scent like a beacon as she walks away. He is so fucked.

\--- ---

A few days later, he finds her in the school store, by herself and reading. She reads for fun, god she really is his opposite.

He instinctively rubs at the mark on his chest, almost like it was hurting him.

“Uh, hey Laurel,” Laurel--he likes that name. It fits her and now he knows it, she becomes more real, she is more real.

“Tommy,” She pushes her book to the side, “How’d you figure it out?”

He takes a step further into the store, closing the door behind him.

“Yearbook,” He shrugs and she rolls her eyes at him.

He doesn’t add that he had seen her around Felicity quite a bit and if she is Felicity’s friend that means Oliver knows who she is. So he went straight to Oliver with the yearbook and asked to know everything Oliver knew.

Which wasn’t that much since Felicity was closer to Laurel’s sister who was a sophomore and named Sara. All Oliver could give him was her dad was a detective and her mom ran off when she was a kid.

“It doesn’t matter,” She tells him again. “Soulmates don’t have to be anything we don’t want it to be.”

He is relieved--honestly--because the last thing he wants is a relationship with someone he doesn’t even know, “Exactly.”

And also, Oliver and Felicity have absolutely terrified him when it came to soulmates. Even if he wanted to pursue something with Laurel, the last thing he wanted was to bond. He didn’t know how common that was, but Oliver and Felicity fucked once and were bonded and no thank you, Tommy no likey.

“Just don’t tell anyone, okay?” She asks him and he nods quickly. 

And then he rushes out, like he got the permission for nothing to change.

\----- ----

Laurel doesn’t tell anyone, taking to wearing long sleeve shirts and sweaters and dresses. She doesn’t want the questions from her friends, doesn’t want to take the chance of someone seeing Tommy’s putting the pieces together.

She subtly and hypothetically (you can’t prove anything) asks Felicity about it and as per usual, Felicity was awkward and stiff like no one could see the practically art piece on her hand. 

Still, she ignores Tommy Merlyn. She ignores his popularity, she ignores his charismatic persona and the way he demanded attention with any room he walked in. 

But the mark didn’t appreciate being ignored.

They don’t ignore each other for long. At first, they occasionally would find each other across the hall, the room, the cafeteria. They would make eye contact long enough for her heart to skip a beat and for her to instinctively rub at the symbol on her arm.

He had to drop something off for a teacher and gravity seemed to pull him to stop in front of her desk. It was like their marks were aching to be closer and forcing them into close proximity. She embarrassingly almost reached out for him, just to stay right there a few seconds longer to re energize her for the rest of the day. 

And then he starts hanging around the store because his best friend works it--not well, Roy really needs to lay off smoking before school.

He seems to know Felicity and says hello to her every morning he comes to grab something for breakfast. Laurel doesn’t tell Felicity that she is definitely piecing it all together when Oliver Queen comes one morning and never takes his eyes off the spunky blue haired friend. 

And even worse, they look like they are even having a conversation without ever speaking. 

Laurel observes everything around her, it’s how she will defeat her enemies in the courtroom and Oliver Queen couldn’t hide the way he looked at Felicity Smoak.

Tommy stopped using Roy as an excuse to come into the store.

And somehow, along the way, they became delicate friends.

And even worse, Laurel starts to like him.

And nothing is worse than liking your soulmate who wants to sow his wild oats. He had a different girl every week and it made her arm burn like it was punishing her for his decisions.

But as weeks go on, the burning lessens until it doesn’t hurt at all. She doesn’t look into it.

“Laurel, can you help me with my A&P homework?” Tommy asks her when she is in the library all alone.

She looks up from her notes and squints, “Why are you in A&P?”

He blushes as he plops down beside her, “Because I needed a science and was told it was easy.”

She shakes her head at him, “You really need to stop asking Roy about which classes are easy.”

He laughs, “So you’ll help me?”

She sighs, she is technically ahead on her homework, “What are soulmates for?”

His smile is almost worth the ache in her heart.

\------ -----

Tommy has a problem.

He likes her.

Like really fucking likes her. And he doesn't know if it is because she is his soulmate or because he was always gonna like her. But he starts to miss her. And Tommy doesn’t miss people--except Oliver--but Oliver is literally like his brother--technically step but they didn’t speak about that-- so he doesn’t count.

But he can’t like her, because Laurel didn’t feel that way. Sure, they might be sorta friends, but that doesn’t change that she doesn’t want to be his soulmate.

And unfortunately, he gets it. Laurel is the pinnacle in his opinion. With her grades, her kindness. She has been to study hall once and it was because she missed a test. Her face always twisted into a glare to hide that she was, in fact, kind and always looking out for the little guy. Three times he had seen her slip a dollar into the cash register and tell a kid who didn’t have enough money the wrong total. 

She had never been to a party, never sipped an alcoholic beverage, definitely never even been near weed. She was everything he wasn’t and he would only bring her down.

But he likes her.

So much that he finds himself rubbing his mark all day. When she walks by, when his friends mention she is weird when she walks past their lunch table. It is like touching the mark reminded him, she belonged to him and he belonged to her even if they didn’t agree.

If she didn’t agree.

Cause he did.

So when a guy shows interest in her--it bothers him a lot. The fact it is a friend of his, Ted, makes it even worse. Because he can’t yell at him, stomp his foot because then Ted would know. And he wasn’t embarrassed by Laurel, he wasn’t, but she would never forgive him if he drew attention to them. 

And so he goes to Laurel instead, finding her in the middle of a deserted hallway.

“Do you like Ted?” He asks her and tries to keep the panic out of his voice, the fear he was about to lose her.

“Why does it matter? We aren’t anything.”

God, does anything fucking matter to her? He takes a step closer to her, their shoes touching and this is the closest they have been since they found out they were soulmates and he can feel his mark almost moaning.

“You’re my soulmate.” He growls, pointing at himself.

“So you want me to just wait around while you finish peaking?” She is angry, appalled even that he would suggest something so hypocritical, “Fuck you, Tommy.”

She shoves him away from her and she doesn’t speak to him.

For weeks.

And she doesn’t start to date Ted. She doesn’t even talk to him.

And Tommy hates himself.

\----- ------

Sara drags her to a party at Tommy’s. She tries to get out of it as does Felicity, but Sara begs them because her crush invited her and who was she to tell Nyssa no?

So Laurel sucked it up, Felicity only gave a few glares and they walked into Tommy Merlyn’s mansion. She almost expected to be thrown out, an alarm going off the second she stepped over the threshold with a blinking sign that said “Not popular enough.”

But she was standing beside Oliver Queen’s bonded soulmate even if no one knew and there was no way Tommy would throw them out on that fact alone. Oliver would probably kill him for touching his beloved soulmate. God, it took her two months to put that shit together, he literally has his hand covered in Felicity’s favorite flowers. 

The second they are in the house Sara bolts to find Nyssa without making it look like she is looking for Nyssa. Felicity stays beside Laurel, neither of them as comfortable as the younger Lance.

“What if we just leave her?” Felicity questions, an arm linked through Laurel’s as they push through the partying teens.

Laurel giggles, “Honestly, she would just use that to her advantage.”

Felicity clears her throat, “Nyssa, my mean sister and best friend left me--make out with me.”

Laurel throws her head back laughing. They stay off to the side talking for an unknown amount of time before Felicity freezes beside her. Laurel looks around the room and sees Oliver beside Tommy, nodding to what he is saying but his eyes are on Felicity and Felicity only.

“Oliver Queen, huh?” Laurel asks, finally confronting her friend.

Felicity shakes her head at first, tries to play it off, but then she glares at Oliver and Laurel, once again, is a hundred percent sure they can reach each other’s minds.

“Are you two bonded?” Laurel whispers.

She sighs and gives a meek nod, “Yeah.”

“Fuck, Felicity,” Laurel assumed, she practically knew but still having it confirmed was insane. 

No one and she means _no one_ bonds that young. 

“We were fourteen,” She murmurs, her fingers rubbing at the blue and purple marks and goes to continue but stops, “Sorry, he’s being a right _dick_ at the moment,” She glares at Oliver as she says it and Laurel follows her gaze to see Oliver glaring right back.

“Yikes,” Laurel mutters, taking a sip of her water.

Felicity cheeks begin to flush and Laurel makes a disgusted noise, “Oh my god, gross.”

“Excuse me,” Felicity mutters with a hoarse tone, all but stomping away from Laurel and towards Oliver. 

Neither say anything, she doesn’t grab him, but he does hand his cup to Tommy and instantly follow her. Almost instantaneously, Tommy is looking right at Laurel and she wants to hide. And because she is a coward, she does. She turns, and hightails it up the stairs and tries to find a place to cower and admit defeat until it was time for her to leave. But it is his house, and she manages to step into a room that is most definitely his. 

What are the fucking odds?

He finds her instantly, and steps into his room with a sigh. “You know Laurel, if you wanted to come into my room, you just had to ask.”

She hated the way he made everything a joke. She can’t imagine he has taken anything in their lives seriously. He never had to worry about his dad getting shot and killed, never worried about if his mom was even alive. He was rich Tommy Merlyn with the perfect mom, the perfect house, the perfect life.

And she was just Laurel.

Just Laurel would never add up.

“I didn’t mean to come here,” She tells him.

“My room or the party?” He asks, leaning against his door with arms crossed.

“Both,” She shrugs, looking at the lone photo on his desk of him and who Laurel assumes is his mom, “Not like I was invited, right?”

He frowns, his eyebrows furrow and he pushes off the door, taking the two steps until he was in front of her. “You don’t need to be invited Laurel. You’re my--”

“What?” She asks, feeling her emotions building so quickly, “What _exactly_ am I to you, Tommy?”

Cause she wants to be more than a soulmate, than a friend. She wanted him to say he chose her because she made him laugh, made his days easier, not because she ran into him one day and he got a mark on him. 

He takes another step, and he leans his forehead against her. She inhales, enjoying the closeness, craving more of it. She doesn’t move, doesn’t embrace him, she lets her arms stay limp beside her. 

“Tell me what to say, Laurel.” He reaches up, his hands gentle at her neck and his thumbs inch her chin up to look at him, “What do I need to say that makes you stay?”

She feels tears burn her eyes, “You say the truth without me goading you for it.”

She goes to grab his arms, to pull him away but he is quicker and instead pushes his lips against her own. She is frozen in place and refuses to enjoy it, to kiss him back. She refuses to analyze the way he tastes, the way his lips fit perfectly against her own. She refuses to feel anything.

She shakes her head and pushes him away, “I’m not going to fall at your feet just because you are Tommy Merlyn. You are going to have to actually try for once.”

He lets her leave then and she isn’t even surprised when he doesn’t follow.

\--- --- 

Soulmates don’t always get the happy ending. That’s what she tells herself when they are on the trip for school and she hears Tommy--once again--has snuck off with a girl only two weeks after he stood in his bedroom and kissed her. 

She tells herself it doesn’t matter. Her parents were soulmates and her mom _still_ left her dad for someone else. Why would Laurel want to put herself through that?

Though when the girl is smug, like she won something, she wants to pull her sleeve up and show her the mark the girl most likely saw on Tommy meant he belonged to her.

But he didn’t.

Did he?

No, she was just another girl who fell for his charm and got left when he found something better.

They were too different and her mark was starting to fade and it broke her heart so much that she ignored him when they saw each other a week after what she dubbed the incident--once again in a hallway.

The classes were full, they had to be and how long would it take before someone noticed how often Tommy followed Laurel around?

“Laurel,” She turns at his voice, walking to get away from him, but he is faster and chasing after her.

“No, no, no,” He grabs her arm, spinning her around, “We are talking.”

“No, we aren’t.” She snaps, “I don’t want to talk to you. I don’t want to be your soulmate. I don’t want _you_.”

He at least looks slightly dejected from her words, “You don’t mean that.”

“Would you even care if I did?” She is desperate and hates she ever told him she didn’t want their mark to mean anything. Because it meant everything, he meant everything. 

But he wanted her and everyone else at the same time. She wasn’t special even as a soulmate. She was just another girl to Tommy Merlyn. She deserved more than that.

His eyes widen as he all but yells, “Yes!”

She shakes her head, she doesn’t believe him and wants to walk away but knows he will just pull her back.

“You’re so good at showing that, Tommy.” She crosses her arm trying so much to hold herself back from loving him.

“You told me you didn’t want to be anything. You told me--

“Yeah, well maybe I lied.” She yells back.

“Laurel--” 

“But it doesn’t matter. Cause you and I will never make sense. And you will always find someone better.” She is rambling and she hates it. This isn't her. She is always precise in what she says. She knows what she wants, her words are her power. But he made her weak. 

“No, no that isn’t true.” He tries to tell her, grabbing her upper arms.

“It is true!” She cries, shaking him off, “Damn it,” She mutters through the tears. She shakes her head, determined to walk away from him and takes steps away from him.

“You can’t just walk away, Laurel.” He tells her desperately.

And she turns back to him, “Cause I’m your soulmate?”

“Cause I _love_ you,” He responds, and he looks just as shocked by his own words as she was.

But it doesn’t make her happy. It doesn’t make it better. “Well that truly sucks for us, doesn’t it?”

\----- -----

Laurel sits on the bleachers, everyone else left after the pep rally. Sara forgot something in her locker and told her just to wait there. Laurel wasn’t complaining and instead sat there, rubbing back and forth against her mark.

She shouldn’t have walked away, and when Roy came to her days later to tell her that Tommy was sad and he knew it was because of her she ignored him. But when Roy told her he was the one that hooked up with the girl and not Tommy, she just wanted to cry.

So now she sat on the bleachers alone in a smelly gym. She saw him during, in the front running the show as he always did, but the spark wasn’t as loud and she knew he was at least somewhat sad without her. 

“Hey,” She blinks, and looks to see him a few rows down, hands in pockets and almost like a child, not the confident Tommy she is used to.

“Hi,” She sighs.

She is so sad, and she just wants to forget the past month of anger and fights.

He must know, he must know she is tired and breaking cause he just murmurs, “Come here.”

And it doesn’t take anything to go down the steps and fall into his arms and cry. One arm is tight around her waist, the other cupping the back of her head. Her arms tucked to her chest.

“I’m sorry,” She cries and he whispers he is sorry too.

She doesn’t care if anyone sees them anymore, if they whisper in confusion why Tommy is hugging her because she just sees him.

She pulls back, ready to explain. “I have been so awful and I just didn’t want you to hurt me. But I didn’t mean what I said, Tommy. I promise.” 

He gives her a nod, a sad smile and then he kisses her and she can’t help the oh that escapes her mouth.

She kisses back this time, she tells him she loves him too when he whispers it against her lips and she lets herself, just for this moment not worry about anything else but him and here.

And here is so good. 


End file.
